Abstract: Seedling recruitment is a key process in forest regeneration. Canopy openness plays an important role in seedling establishment, growth and survival, especially after extreme climate events. In this study, we monitored the seedling recruitment dynamics of a dominant tree species Machilus bombycina with 194 plots (1 m×1 m) over four consecutive years after a snow damage event that happened in January 2015, in a mid-mountain moist evergreen broadleaved forest in Ailaoshan, Yunnan Province. The effects of canopy openness on the seedling growth, recruitment rate and mortality rate were analyzed by Linear Mixed Model (LMM) and Generalized Linear Mixed Model (GLMM). Our results showed that: (1) canopy openness decreased quickly especially in the first year after the snow damage, from 20.07% to 9.97%; (2) the relative increase rate of existing seedlings’ height was positively correlated to canopy openness during 2015-2016 (P<0.05), but not in other years; the relative growth rate of existing seedlings’ leaves was positively correlated to canopy openness during 2016-2017, but not in other years; (3) canopy openness did not correlate with either seedling recruitment rate or mortality rate. Overall, our findings indicated that the increases of canopy openness after snow damage benefited the growth of M. bombycina seedlings.